The wood products industry has been beset with many problems with pollution control equipment, including maintenance problems, unplanned downtime due to material build up in scrubbers and wet electrostatic precipitators (WESP) and in thermal oxidizer systems, including regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO) and regenerative catalytic oxidizer (RCO) degradation caused by deposition of particulates and inorganic salts on ceramic media, causing plugging and deterioration of the media from chemical attack.
The applicants have found that such problems are caused by lack of pre-cleaning prior to RTO/RCO, lack of focus on pre-scrubbing ahead of WESP, WESP design and operation, and poor mist elimination and droplet carryover into the RTO/RCO.
The present invention seeks to solve such problems by modification to the pollution control equipment and procedures used in the wood products industry. The invention is illustrated, as disclosed below, by reference to pollution control of sawdust and wood chip dryer emissions, but the principles are applicable to pollution control to other wood products dryers and other sources of gas-borne pollution.